Why Dairy on Shavuot?

Ahhh... the sumptuous delight of blintzes and cheesecake. Eating a dairy meal on Shavuot has become an enduring tradition. But what's the source for this? Here are seven fascinating reasons:

Reason #1

When the Jewish people received the Torah at Mount Sinai, included was special instructions for how to slaughter and prepare meat for eating. Until then, the Jews had not followed these laws, thus all their meat – plus the cooking pots – were now considered "not kosher." So the only alternative was to eat dairy, which requires no advance preparation.

This raises the question, however: Why didn't the Jews simply slaughter new animals, "kasher" their pots in boiling water (hagala), and cook fresh meat?

The answer is that the revelation at Sinai occurred on Shabbat, when slaughter and cooking are prohibited.

Another point to clarify: How were the Jews able to obtain milk on Shabbat, since milking an animal falls under the prohibited activity of mefarek?

The answer is that the Jews already had milk available from before Shabbat, which they had been using to feed the various animals that accompanied their journeys in the wilderness.

Reason #2

Torah is likened to milk, as the verse says, "Like honey and milk [the Torah] lies under your tongue" (Song of Songs 4:11). Just as milk has the ability to fully sustain the body of a human being (i.e. a nursing baby), so too the Torah provides all the “spiritual nourishment” necessary for the human soul.

Reason #3

The gematria (numerical value) of the Hebrew word for milk, chalav, is 40. We eat dairy foods on Shavuot to commemorate the 40 days that Moses spent on Mount Sinai receiving instruction in the entire Torah. (Moses spent an additional 40 days on Sinai, praying for forgiveness following the Golden Calf, and then a third set of 40 days before returning with a new set of stone tablets.)

The numerical value of chalav, 40, has further significance in that there were 40 generations from Moses who recorded the Written Torah, till the generation of Ravina and Rav Ashi who wrote the final version of the Oral Torah, the Talmud.

Further, the Talmud begins with the letter mem – gematria 40 – and ends with mem as well.

Reason #4

According to the Zohar, each one of the 365 days of the year corresponds to a specific one of the Torah's 365 negative commandments. Which mitzvah corresponds to the day of Shavuot?

The Torah says: "Bring Bikkurim (first fruits) to the God's Holy Temple; don't cook a kid in its mother's milk" (Exodus 34:26). Since the first day for bringing Bikkurim is on Shavuot (in fact, the Torah calls Shavuot "the holiday of Bikkurim"), the second half of that verse – referring to milk and meat – is the negative commandment corresponding to Shavuot day. Thus on Shavuot we eat two meals, one of milk and one of meat, taking care not to mix the two.

Interestingly, we are instructed not to use the same loaf of bread for a meat meal and then later at a milk meal, lest some of the meat substance had splattered on the bread. Thus by eating two meals – one of milk and one of meat – we inevitably have two loaves. This corresponds to the special "Two Loaves" that were offered in the Temple on Shavuot.

Reason #5

An alternative name for Mount Sinai is Har Gav'nunim, the mountain of majestic peaks. The Hebrew word for cheese is gevina, etymologically related to Har Gav'nunim.

Further, the gematria of gevina (cheese) is 70, corresponding to the "70 faces of Torah."

Reason #6

Moses was born on the seventh day of Adar, and stayed at home for three months with his family, before being placed in the Nile River on the sixth of Sivan.

Moses was rescued by Pharaoh's daughter, who adopted Moses and took him to live in Pharaoh's palace. But right away a problem arose: what to feed the baby. In those days, there was no bottled baby formula, so when the birth mother wasn't available, the caretaker would have to hire a wet nurse. In the case of Moses, he kept refusing to nurse from Egyptian women. The Talmud explains that his mouth needed to be kept totally pure, as it would one day communicate directly with God. Finally Pharaoh's daughter found one woman who Moses agreed to nurse from – Yocheved, Moses' biological mother!

Appreciate the irony: Pharaoh's murderous decree against Jewish babies was specifically intended to prevent a new generation of Jewish leadership. So what happened instead? Moses, the upcoming great Jewish leader, was raised, educated and trained – right under Pharaoh's nose, in Pharaoh's own home, at Pharaoh's expense! And on top of it all, Moses' mother got paid a salary!

The eating of dairy foods on Shavuot commemorates this phenomenon in the early life of Moses, which occurred on the sixth of Sivan, the day on which Shavuot falls.

Reason #7

According to one commentator, that day at Sinai was the first time the Jews ate dairy products. There is a general prohibition of "eating a limb from a live animal" (ever min hachai), which logically should also include milk, the product of a live animal. Ever min hachai is actually one of the Seven Noahide Laws which the Jews observed prior to Sinai (and which has applied to all humanity since the days of Noah).

However, upon receiving the Torah, which refers to the Land of Israel as "flowing with milk and honey" (Exodus 3:18), dairy products became permitted to the Jews. In other words, at the same moment that their meat became prohibited, dairy became permitted. They ate dairy on that original Shavuot, and we do today, too.

If the Jews ate dairy for the first time at Mount Sinai, this raises the question how Abraham could have fed dairy products to his three guests (Genesis 18:8).

The answer requires a technical understanding of the prohibition of ever min hachai, "limb from a live animal." One way is to define a "limb" as a piece of meat which contains bones and/or sinews. It is this type of ever min hachai which has always been forbidden to non-Jews. This prohibition does not include milk, because although milk comes from a live animal, it does not contains bones or sinews. Hence, Abraham was permitted to feed milk to his non-Jewish guests.

There is a second, expanded definition of ever min hachai, which encompasses all products from a live animal -- including milk. It is this definition which is prohibited to Jews. Thus it was not until the giving of the Torah, with its reference to "land of milk and honey," that dairy products became permitted to Jews.

This distinction is spelled out clearly by the great Rabbi Shlomo Kluger, in "HaElef Lecha Shlomo" (Yoreh Deah 322).

Rabbi Shraga Simmons is the co-founder of Aish.com, and co-author of "48 Ways to Wisdom" (ArtScroll). He is Founder and Director of Aish.com's advanced learning site. He is co-founder of HonestReporting.com, and author of "David & Goliath", the definitive account of anti-Israel media bias. Originally from Buffalo, New York, he holds a degree in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin, and rabbinic ordination from the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem. He lives with his wife and children in the Modi'in region of Israel.

My brother (moshe flam) gave me the best explanation I have seen yet: On Shavuot one would begin the bikurim as is written: "that you should take of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you shall bring in from thy land that hashem thy God gives you and you shalt put it in a basket and go to the place which hashem thy God shall choose to cause His name to dwell there, And you shall come to the priest that will be in those days, and say to him: 'I proclamate this day unto the hashem thy God, that I came to the land which hashem swore unto our fathers to give us. And the priest will take the basket out of your hand, and set it down before the altar of the hashem thy God, and you will recite the following: "A wandering Aramean was my father... etc etc And He hath brought us into this place, and hath given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. " http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0526.htm Therefor we eat milk and honey (or other sweat milk food such as blintzes).

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Marilyn Nathan,
May 16, 2013 1:05 AM

Aish helps keep my focus on Jewish life

the weekly Parasha is always related to how I live my life as a Jewish individual. The recipes are great. Aish's articles give reference where questions and answers can be easily foung

a

(13)
Shlomo Karni,
May 15, 2013 10:49 PM

Using gimatria is way too over-rated

IThe reason given in the Shulchan Aruch for not eating nuts on the High Holidays: egoz (nut) = 17, AS IS chet (sin)[sic!] Please check chet again! ... but then what difference does the humble "1"make?

(12)
Yocheved,
May 12, 2013 2:38 AM

Milk was forbidden until Shavuos? I find that hard to swallow!

I find reason #7 difficult to believe for the following reasons:

1) The bracha Yaakov gives to Yehuda is that "His eyes are red from wine and that his teeth are white from milk," indicating that he drank milk. (Unless you translate "Chachlili Einaim me'yayin u'liven shinayim me'chalav" as meaning "Eyes redder than wine and teeth whiter than milk," which is also a possible translation.)

2) Given that it was known that breast-milk was permissible to drink, wouldn't Bnei Yisroel have made a kal v'chomer that if milk from a woman (who is nonkosher) is permitted, how much more so milk from a kosher animal?

3) According to the Talmud, the Torah was given on Shabbos. One is not allowed to collect milk from an animal on Shabbos because of the issur of s'chitah. So if the Jews only just found out on Shabbos that they were allowed to drink milk, they couldn't have drunk milk on Shavuos-- they would have had to wait until motzei Shavuos. (Unless you want to say that they went and drank directly from the animal's udder-- but that seems a bit uncouth.)

4) The phrase "Eretz Zavat Chalav U'dvash" was known to Bnei Yisroel well before the giving of the Torah-- Hashem said it to Moshe at the burning bush.

5) Even if milk were forbidden to Jews but permissible for non-Jews, I can't imagine that Sarah would allow Avraham to serve non-kosher food on her kosher dishes.

(11)
Beryl ben Modechai,
May 26, 2012 5:43 PM

Tradition

A simpler, yet satisfying, answer would be tradition. That's how it's always been done. That's why we do it. Equating eating the limb of a live animal with 'milk' has to be the most ridiculous nonsense ever perpetrated.

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Anonymous,
June 6, 2011 10:46 AM

Thanks all who put this together-really helped in that desprite situation, especially when you have angry teachers on your back

(9)
Jack Hodari,
June 4, 2010 5:14 PM

Brilliant

This page tells me everything I want to know about having dairy on Shavuos. Thank You!

(8)
Marcia Steinbrook,
May 21, 2010 4:49 PM

It's about time that we celebrated Moses' mother for taking good care of him as a baby right under the Pharoh's scrutiny, instead of our placing so much emphasis on Ruth's solution to her dilemma during this holiday! I raise my parfait glass in Yocheved's honor!

(7)
Just Wondering,
May 20, 2010 12:30 AM

Milk versus Golden Calf

It does seem strange to me that we consider the giving of Torah a holiday on which to also elevate cows (milk) since it was also at this time we had the trouble of worshipping the image of a golden calf. I would have thought this would have been the holiday most DISassociated with cows.
Or am I missing the obvious? Was the dairy of Shavuot supposed to only be from goats?

fay,
May 24, 2012 6:29 PM

perhaps the association (and not disassociation) has to do with Tikkun- since there was a negative association with the calf, let's turn it into a positive association and elevate it with a mitzvah.

(6)
Eli Menaged,
May 18, 2010 10:15 PM

another answer

See also Torat Haim on Bava Metzia 86b that when the angels argued that the Jews shouldn't receive the Torah,Hashem responded they have no right to speak since they ate milk and meat when they were guests by Avraham Avinu and this is the source for the minhag that we eat milk followed by a meat meal one after the other but do it according to halacha.

(5)
Anonymous,
May 29, 2009 3:47 PM

every informative thanks
though the ref of (EXODUS 3:18)is actually (3:17)

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GILDA ROTHENBERG,
June 11, 2008 11:26 AM

Dairy & Shavuot

Terrific, too bad I got thi after Shavuot.

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Anonymous,
June 6, 2008 2:15 PM

A (Possible) Seventh Reason

Fascinating.

This probably sounds dumb, but at the end of the book of Ruth, Naomi nurses Ruth''s son Oved, she provides him with milk---life sustaining milk--to the baby whose father will be David HaMelech and from his descendants will come the messiah.